Discovering new card combos that fit into a coherent deck strategy is one of my favorite aspects of AM. I wanted to start a thread that deals with more developed custom deck ideas.

What is an intermediate level deck? Well, without putting an actual MP price on it, I would define it as a deck that you cannot initially afford until you go up a few levels and gain some MP (I don’t count the +200 MP bonus for premium players). Maybe an upper limit of 1000-1200 MP, although I’ll leave that to the discretion of anyone who wants to post.

In general, to qualify for this list, I play-test the deck in solo-mode against the Archmage or Master Mage first. When I can consistently beat them, I move to PVP combat. Of course sometimes decks work better than others depending upon what deck the opponent is using (the Russian players have coined a term for this and call it the Metagame). But I have used all of them in match-winning duels against other players.

As intermediate level duelists, I assume players are familiar enough with the cards that I won’t bother going into detail about how to use these decks. Rather I’ll leave that up to each one to try for themself. Instead I’ll just mention some good combos and maybe comment about strengths or weaknesses.

Have fun reading, and I hope documenting these decks leads people to try out more PVP dueling. I’ll see you all in the arena!

Dreamteam67

2011-03-05 22:23:11

First of all, I would like to say from experience that every single deck in the “Looking for Starter Deck” thread can be upgraded into an effective intermediate dueling deck. Suggestions on how to do so are already listed with those deck descriptions. Experimentation with different cards according to different playing style, how each individual deck plays, and what decks opponents are using at the time is all par for the course. So I am probably not going to be mentioning those decks again here unless there is some change that really makes a fundamental difference. Of course, everyone is welcome to share their ideas.

Dreamteam67

2011-03-05 22:24:24

The first new deck I would like to introduce costs 875 MP and features the Fairy Peacekeeper and Mithril Golem. It contains 30 cards from Air and Earth. I’ve chalked up a lot of wins using decks based off this one.

Cards to add: This deck is slow to build up AP when compared to some, but the strong card-, health- and mana-generating potential seems to compensate for this. It is also light on creature removal/mass damage. So my early additions were anything that generates new cards and/or kills enemy creatures. If I was going to add in a third element, it would probably be Water.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-05 22:25:41

Dreamteam67

2011-03-06 01:02:55

Here is another interesting deck costing 799 MP featuring the Cave Troll and Dark Elf. Atypical for such an inexpensive intermediate level deck, it uses 3 elements: Earth, Water and Fire.

3x Dark Elf (spell cost bonus)

3x Fire Spikes (mass damage + gain card)

3x Hammer of Ancients (weapon of mass destruction)

3x Rune of Eternal Fire (creature removal)

3x Nature Ritual (gain life + heal troops)

3x Healing Ritual (heal creature + gain card)

2x Clone (copy creature)

3x Fire Ball (mass damage)

3x Clay Golem (spell resistance)

3x Call to Fittest (choose any creature)

1x Cave Troll (regenerating tough guy + gain cards)

Good Combos:Dark Elves + Cave Troll + Hammer of Ancients.

Cards to Add: The deck is slow to build up AP and your precious Dark Elf horde is vulnerable to enemy spells. So look to add some Water cards. I’ve also had fun with a Duplicator. Don't even THINK about adding a Dragon to this deck, as that would be pure evil.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-06 05:49:44

Dreamteam67

2011-03-06 04:01:40

Here is an inexpensive but effective intermediate deck featuring the Dragon and Giant Turtle. It has 30 cards, costs 825 MP and uses Fire and Water. Nice Dragon… nice Dragon.

1x Dragon (drain enemy AP)

1x Giant Turtle (armored tough guy + gain cards)

1x Astral Collapse (mass damage)

3x Fire Bolt (surgical damage)

3x Storm Ritual (gain AP + mass damage)

3x Justice (mass damage + gain card)

3x Ritual of the Ocean (gain AP + gain card)

3x Merfolk Trapper (hinder enemy deployment)

3x Astral Analysis (gain AP + gain card)

3x Call to Fittest (choose any creature)

3x Rune of Eternal Fire (creature removal)

3x Materialize (choose any card + gain life)

Good combos: Giant Turtle + 3-cost spells, Dragon + any spell

Cards to add: The deck has good AP gain, good creature removal, good card regeneration, and of course the Dragon can really mess with your opponent’s game plan. But it lacks both healing and spell protection, and is still vulnerable to rush decks. So maybe add some Water.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-06 04:04:01

Dreamteam67

2011-03-06 05:33:48

Here is another 3-element deck, further noteworthy because it only includes spells. It has 30 cards, costs 994 MP and uses Water, Air and Earth. Once again, I forget the name of the player who first introduced me to this deck idea, but he was great fun to play against.

Cards to add: To add creatures or not to add creatures, that is the question. If I were going to add just one creature, it would probably be the Elven Archer (can deploy and kill a wounded Spellbreaker on the same round). This deck has quick AP buildup, direct damage to the enemy, good creature removal, decent healing and great card turnover which covers a lot of its weaknesses. It is of course vulnerable to spells like Amnesia and Memory Burn, but then again, so is just about any other deck. Having the right spell for the right occasion is important. So cards that allow you to choose a spell are useful.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-06 05:40:31

Dreamteam67

2011-03-06 17:37:31

Here is a control deck based solely on Air. This one has 30 cards and costs 796 MP (10% card discount for single-element deck). While single-element decks are a bit risky, you can still get away with using them early on in your duelling career. Control decks make for fun PVP matches.

Cards to add: The strength of this deck is the disruption it causes to your opponent’s game plan. The gamble (and it does work) is to orchestrate the disruption so as to make up for your own weaknesses. So add any cards that increase disruption. The deck lacks a lot of things: slow AP gain, no healing, hardly any mass damage. If I was going to add any single element, it would probably be Fire (to play to the deck's strengths) or Water (to cover the weaknesses).

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-06 18:17:55

Dreamteam67

2011-03-16 04:59:21

Here is a fun deck to try featuring the Lord of Nature with Earth, Fire and Air. It costs 832 MP and contains 31 cards.

Cards to Add: To play to the deck’s strengths, look for low mana-cost cards that add to the destruction. Faster AP gain would be nice, but that means adding some Water.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-16 05:01:38

Dreamteam67

2011-03-16 16:45:01

This 30 card deck introduces the Goblin Watchtower and Elven Priest, and also features our good old trusty friend the Cave Troll. It costs 950 MP and uses Fire and Earth.

3x Elven Priest (gain mana + opponent gains life)

1x Will of Ancients (endless light troops)

2x Cave Troll (regenerating tough guy + gain cards)

3x Ritual of Nature (gain life + heal troops)

2x Hammer of Ancients (endless surgical damage)

2x Healing Ritual (heal troop + gain card)

3x Rune of Eternal Fire (destroy creature)

2x Plasma Bolt (damage creature + opponent)

3x Fire Bolt (damage creature)

3x Elf Healer (gain life)

3x Goblin Watchtower (gain cards)

3x Elf Armorer (damage control)

Good combos: Troll + Hammer/Will. Priest + Watchtower.

Cards to add: This deck is slow to build AP, but the Priest and high card-turnover potential seem to compensate for this. You might be able to get away early on with a less expensive version by nerfing the plasma bolt, but but less direct damage potential to the opponent will draw out the match. The Lord of Pain or Dragon would nicely play to the deck’s strengths.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-16 17:07:39

Wosstawshiy

2011-03-16 18:23:56

very stupid deck

Dreamteam67

2011-03-16 22:07:48

I've won matches with it, so it isn't as bad as you think. Whether any deck is good or bad depends on the Metagame (your own deck collection vs. opponent deck collection for those who haven't read the Russian AM websites). So what would you suggest to people for early deck ideas Wosstawshiy? Come on, you've got tons of experience, so help us newbs out rather than flaming my thread. I know you use the toad deck, but what else is cool?

Dreamteam67

2011-03-16 22:16:09

While Wosstawshiy thinks about it , here is another deck introducing the Merfolk Elder and Wall of Eternal Ice. It also features the Keeper of Nature who comes with a nasty assortment of useful spells. It contains 30 cards, costs 1025 MP, and uses Water and Earth. Thanks to the players who have beaten me using this one.

3x Merfolk Elder (gain AP)

1x Keeper of Nature (spell summoner)

1x Polymorph (destroy creature + gain card)

1x Sword of Nature (destroy creature + gain life)

1x Rejuvenation (gain life + cards)

3x Ritual of Nature (gain life + heal troops)

3x Healing Ritual (heal troop + gain card)

1x Will of Ancients (endless light troops)

1x Wall of Eternal Ice (big fat wall + mass damage)

1x Final Sacrifice (direct damage self + opponent)

3x Justice (mass damage + gain card)

3x Storm Ritual (gain AP + mass damage)

3x Call to Fittest (choose any creature)

3x Materialize (choose any card)

2x Merfolk Trapper (weakens enemy deployment)

Good combos: Wall of Eternal Ice + Sword of Nature + Final Sacrifice.

Cards to add: This deck has very effective early AP-gain from the Merfolk Elder along with some decent card-generation that enables the Keeper to wreak all sorts of mischief with his spells. It’s main strength is in its huge life-boosting potential, but its reliance on spells makes it vulnerable. So look to add cards that either boost life or safeguard/enhance your spell casting ability.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-16 22:18:07

Dreamteam67

2011-03-17 18:43:51

Here is another using the Elven Priest and Goblin Watchtower, this time also including a Dragon. It uses Fire and Earth with 30 cards and costs 1045 MP. Once again, thanks to the players who have used this one against me for the idea.

Cards to add: The deck has good healing and good card turnover potential, with decent creature removal, not to mention the Dragon’s AP drain ability. Of course, if you can figure out a better way to get good card turnover along with an early mana boost when using Fire and Earth, by all means do it. But imo the advantages of the mana boost makes up for the fact that the Priest gives the opponent life. Once the Dragon has reduced the opponent’s AP to 0 it doesn’t matter how much life he has, the match is more or less over.

Thanks for posting your list, although most of these decks were created using v1.6, and now cost more MP using v1.8:

Blitzkrieg - 900

Blitzkrieg II – 1150

Toad – 675

Toad Murderers – 825

Forbid – 675

Golems – 1050

Full Control - 1300

Keepers - 1325

Trouble – 994

That said, most of these decks definitely deserve being mentioned here. The Blitzkrieg deck I forgot about: thanks for posting it. The Toad and Golem decks (or very similar) were already covered in the Starter Deck thread, and as I mentioned earlier tips are already given there for how to upgrade them to intermediate dueling decks; so here we have 2 clear examples. Forbid is one of the default solo decks, so I figure everybody already knows about it (personally haven’t seen it used in custom yet, although I did win one of my first PVP matches using Blasting Walls, so that one should be mentioned as well). The Full Control and Keepers decks are definitely in the upper range of what I would label as ‘intermediate’. The Trouble deck is a good example of just how much variation is possible in deck strategy once you get to 1000 MP or so, and you win a cookie for using only 1-element. Nice.

Like it or not, every one of the decks posted in this thread works. I won a match… again… just this morning using the deck you call ‘stupid’. So if you don’t like it, don’t use it. But honestly I am much more interested in creative suggestions (or constructive criticism, meaning tell us all how to improve it rather than just flame it), especially from veteran players like you with your experience.

When I log on, I see 40+ players in Classic and maybe 10 in Custom and maybe 4 in Roundtable. SO all I am trying to do is help persuade some of those players in Classic to switch over and try some experimentation with their own dueling strategies. Personally, I think it is more fun. So maybe I loose a few matches with an experimental deck idea (my win/loss ratio is still respectable)… but it feels great when I try something new and win.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-18 02:29:35

Wosstawshiy

2011-03-18 11:39:59

Ok. I want to help you in your tests.

Dreamteam67

2011-03-22 22:24:41

Excellent. Most of the decks here come from dueling other players and seeing what card combos are used in the match, then trying to see if I can fit those ideas into an inexpensive deck. Many decks might not be perfect, but their effectiveness is not completely dependent upon their own composition, rather also on what decks they will likely be fighting against (the Metagame). However, I generally find that for a deck to be viable even in the Metagame, it needs to excel at one or more things like card generation, good AP gain, creature destruction, or have lots of good combos, etc.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-22 22:28:31

Dreamteam67

2011-03-23 13:22:53

Here we have another fun control deck for 890 MP using Water and Air using 30 cards.

3x Merfolk Scout (AP gain)

3x Merfolk Elder (2x AP gain)

3x Storm Ritual (AP gain + mass damage)

3x Ritual of the Ocean (AP gain + gain card)

3x Astral Search (AP gain + gain card)

3x Ritual of Wind (card return)

2x Hypnosis (direct damage opponent + gain card)

2x Energy Bolt (direct damage opponent + gain card)

3x Wind of Conquer (steal creature)

2x Power of Solitude (gain cards)

3x Wind of Command (steal creature)

Good cards to add: This deck has excellent AP gain and good card generation, often ending the match with a massive shot from the Energy Bolt. Remember to use control to cover your weaknesses. It doesn’t work very well against certain rush decks, but that may be due to a lack of healing or mass damage. Otherwise imo the deck could also use some spell protection.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-03-23 13:23:37

Dreamteam67

2011-04-10 06:36:17

Here is a 33 card deck featuring Faeries and Forest creatures using Air and Earth for 870 MP.

3x Faerie Tactician (damage booster)

3x Faerie Dancer (optimize slots)

3x Forest Snake (good against light creatures)

3x Nature Ritual (heal troops + gain life)

3x Healing Ritual (heal trooper + gain card)

3x Forest Sprite (mass damage + gain life)

3x Power of Unity (gain cards)

3x Pure Knowledge (gain cards)

3x Faerie Hypnotist (direct damage opponent)

3x Elven Archer (ranged attack)

3x Wind of Conquer (steal creature)

Good Combos: Double up Tacticians flanking the Forest Snake and the Forest Sprite.

Cards to add: Elementals, mana boosters and control spells. Also some mass damage spells would be nice, as well as maybe consider the Faerie Sparkcaster.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-04-12 17:40:28

Dreamteam67

2011-04-26 06:08:49

Here is a simple but effective deck featuring the Acid Wall using Water and Air for 825 MP:

Cards to add: This deck would benefit from faster AP-gain. Think about adding some capture/control spells from Air.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-04-26 06:09:53

Big Blue Balls

2011-04-28 03:17:55

Hey I'm new to these forums and I wouldn't mind having your opinion on the deck I'm using. I'm not home, but off the top of my head, this is what it contains:

3x fire wall3x griffon3x the air girl that lets you bring a creature back to your deck3x the air spell that brings back a creature to your decksome damage spellssome fire creaturessome spells to get cards

The whole thing revolves around putting the griffon and firewall on and off the board to deal damage to opponent directly. It's been rather effective because you don't need much AP to deal damage early in game.

Dreamteam67

2011-05-03 05:37:03

I like the idea and have seen it used once or twice in Custom. Against the right decks it can work well, although it can also be fairly easily countered. I think I might have dueled with you or someone else also using a similar deck. The two Air cards you are referring to are the Faerie Windcrafter and Ritual of Wind, correct? For what it is worth, my two cents:

On the positive side, a Fire/Air deck has lots of possibilities for creature destruction and card gain. On the negative side, one of the challenges is lack of healing and slow AP-buildup. If I remember correctly, Drain Life is the only heal card available, and there are only very few AP or Mana boosters to choose from (Bloody Hunter, Lord of Pain, Rescuing Ritual, Archangel). So in general this means a Fire/Air deck has to rely on its ability to completely dominate the opponent and finish the match before lack of healing becomes an issue.

The deck you describe I think is a solid base for a good dueling deck, but there is lots of room for fine tuning when considering the above statement. I was able to create a couple of deck variations from anywhere between 850-1050 MP. Things you might think about:

1) Add creature control spells like Wind of Command or Wind of Conquer, so you can either steal key enemy creatures OR use them to grab your Wall of Fire back to your own hand.

2) Astral Wind, Wasting Wind and Master of Wind also all reinforce the deploy/return auto-damage mechanism of the Griffon or Wall of Fire. Titan and Hypnosis are also good low-MP-cost cards for fleshing out a deck with auto-damage to get you to 30 cards.

3) The Orc Soldier and Faerie Apprentice are also good cards for quickly filling empty slots and overwhelming the opponent with early damage. Their over-use in the early game however tends to deplete your hand quickly, so you need to think about how to restock your cards or you will find yourself with an empty hand when you hit AP 5 or so.

4) Wyvern and Faerie Assassin are also good cards that combo well with wind spells.

5) End the match with Final Sacrifice. Since you are going for early direct damage to the opponent, why extend the match further than necessary? This however requires Water (which opens up all sorts of possibilities).

Here is an alternative deck I’ve been toying with costing 949 MP that uses Fire, Air and Water. It simply tries to overwhelm the opponent with Fire Walls:

3x Wall of Fire

3x Call to Fittest

3x Materialize

3x Clone

1x Astral Search

3x Ritual of Wind

2x Faerie Windcrafter

3x Master of Wind

3x Fire Bolt, Storm Ritual OR Justice

3x Fire Ball OR Griffon

3x Pure Knowledge

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-05-21 01:43:22

Chocobo

2011-05-06 10:41:20

Introduction to my Astral Charge Starter Deck using Version 1.9

Very powerful and well balanced starter deck. Strategic goal of deck- Increases astral power in a number of different ways & summons creatures with special abilities to heal & attack. Comes from the traditional formula of RPG games.

Water- 3x Storm Ritual spells- Increases caster’s astral power by 1. If the caster’s astral power becomes 6 or greater it deals 6 damage to each opponents creatureWater- 2x Acidic Drake- Attacks all enemies, in addition when the owner sacrifices a card the Acidic Drake deals 3 damage to each opponents creatureWater- 2x Merfolk Scout- Whenever the Merfolk scout damages the opponent it increases the owners astral power by 1Water- 3x Astral Chaneller- Whenever the owner summons a creature with cost of 4 or more it will increase owners astral power by 1Water- 3x Justice spell- Deals x damage to each opponent’s creature where x is equal to that creature’s attack, in addition caster receives a card

Early Strategy- Summon Astral Chaneller. If you don’t get the Astral Chaneller in your first hand, sacrifice higher level creatures to use the Storm Ritual spells or summon the Merfolk Scout to increase your Astral |Power.

Mid Strategy- Do not sacrifice your Elven Cavalry or Master Healers. Use the Forest Sprite or Nature Ritual spells if you take a lot of damage.

End Strategy- Summon the Salamander. The Master Healer and Salamander make a powerful duo using their special abilities. Opponents Walls and higher-level creatures should be targeted. Decrease enemy creatures so the Elven Cavalry can attack open spaces.

Key Focus:

Master Healer and Astral Chaneller creatures are key to victory in this deck. Do not sacrifice them early on in the duel. Exceptions are if you have doubles.Elven Cavalry and Salamanders should be your reinforcements. Acidic Drake should be your secondary reinforcement. Forest Sprite and Nature Ritual spell should provide aid to your life points.

In summary: Try out the powerful combinations using this deck: Master Healer/Salamander -Special abilitiesSalamander/Acidic Drake/Forest Sprite- normal attacking abilityAstral Chaneller/Merfolk Scout -Astral power can rise to very high levelsFireball/Justice spells – Most effective with high-level enemy creatures

Enjoy!

Dreamteam67

2011-05-08 19:23:33

Thanks for the post - lots of good ideas for creature combos - but wrong thread You might want to repost in the "Looking for Starter Deck" thread.

In any case, IMO to transform this into a truly effective dueling deck, it needs some kind of mechanism for generating cards or creatures. Relying on the natural 1-card-per-turn draw to restock your hand pretty much guarantees that you will have a hard time should anyone hit you with a few mass-damage or creature-destruction spells and take out your key creatures in one fell swoop. Not sure what you could add for an effective inexpensive fix, but maybe the Merfolk Summoner, some Dwarves, or the Cave Troll/Hammer of Ancients/Will of Ancients combo might work. Possibly add a Spellbreaker.

Maybe not quite as important but still worth mentioning: while Fireball is good, having more spells/creatures that take advantage of the high potential AP might be good. The longer it takes for you to take down your opponent, the more opportunity he has to recover and take you down instead. Elementals, Faerie Sparkcaster or spells like Plasma Bolt/Chain Lightning/Inferno would be nice additions to this deck. They all become quite deadly as your AP grows.

Just my opinion.

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-05-08 19:31:58

Astral Duelist

2011-05-10 12:38:23

Hi Dreamteam67. Just want to applaud you for your contributions on this forum. Your ideas are very insightful. Chocobos deck is good, but very slow in the upstart. I did manage to get straight wins in the starter level tournament and move on to advancement level against the AI. Once you get the key creatures summoned, their presence can be overwhelming in dealing some serious physical damage. You are right about the lack of spells and card generation. You’ll get demolished if you consistently rely on the one-hand draw method but I managed to get good draws so I suppose I was relatively lucky!!

Anyway tell me what you think of this Intermediate deck which I constructed with a level of 1522 MP. It’s called the Death Servant Deck. The idea behind this deck was to reap the “once off” benefits of Walls & turn them into Death Servants!

This deck has good mana regeneration and increasing astral power as well as turning walls into an army of Death Servants and wiping your opponent with a flurry of heavy damage attacks. The odds of getting these on your first hand is quite good: Death Servant, Hampster Mystic or Wall of Revivial.

This deck relies on “sacrificing” the key creatures to enable quick mana regeneration and accumulating lots of astral power in the process.

With Astral Chaneller, Adept of Dorlak Summoned- Turn Walls or any creature into Death Servants to increase Astral Power. If you turn the Merfolk into a Death Servant you get 2 Astral Power. Note: The Wall of Revival has a continuous benefit. Only in emergencies I turned this wall into a Death Servant.

The Salamanders should provide back-up should you have to take out higher level enemy creatures. One of the good aspects of this deck is that the Adept of Dorlak can summon new Death Servants to replace any Servants that get damaged by mass spells (as if they get completely healed)

All the spells I have chosen for this deck are low in cost, which will give you cards in abundance. Keep in mind I was restricted in using some of the other better spells because of the limit of my MP. Try out the deck and tell me what you think.

Thanks.

Dreamteam67

2011-05-12 14:30:53

Thanks for your post. I am having trouble reproducing the deck you describe. I see 32 cards listed rather than 31, and with the 150% price factor for using all four elements, I am getting a deck that costs way over 2000 MP? I don't have access to premium cards. So for my tests, I used Priest of Dorlak = Adept of Dorlak, Emissary of Dorlak = Dark Servant. Also, I don't have enough MP to actually test this deck in a PVP match, so all I can say about it is based on solo combat against the Archmage. Sorry.

That said, I THINK I understand the gist of your strategy: use the walls to gain cards and cycle through the deck, and then sacrifice them to gain even MORE cards/creatures. Clever. It also has a little bit of everything: AP gain, Mana boost, Life gain, mass healing. Nice.

Let's see if we can make a similar deck that is a bit more affordable, shall we? Let's say down to 1200 MP or so, without loosing the general strategy? I came up with this 30 card deck, which costs 1280 MP and uses Fire, Water, Air and Earth. I added plenty of low-cost creatures with special powers as sacrificial victims for the Emissary and Priest. I like it:

2x Fire Bolt

2x Fire Ball

2x Justice

3x Faerie Apprentice

3x Nature Ritual

3x Salamander

3x Wall of Knowledge

3x Elf Healer

2x Priest of Dorlak

2x Emissary of Dorlak

3x Astral Channeller

2x Hamster Mystic

Replacing Hamster Mystic with Healing Ritual slows the deck down somewhat, but brings the cost down to 1027 MP. You can definitely use this deck for intermediate duelling.

What do you think?

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-05-12 14:50:57

Astral Duelist

2011-05-12 16:40:35

Sorry, my mistake Dreamteam67, the error is, 3x Adept of Dorlak, 2x Dark Servant & 1x Fire Spike gives you 31 cards. Remember this will also depend on which cards you have “free” in the Advanced league. The Hamster Mystic costs me 100, Wall of Revival 155 & Ritual of life 125 respectively. Yours might differ in cost value depending on the cards you have free to use. Your deck above works well, I even used Faerie Skillmaster (free) instead of Faerie Apprentice, but obviously it defeats the purpose of the deck being more cost effective.

Note: If you played against the AI with this deck, have you noticed it doesn’t attack the Hamster in the beginning of the duel, as if it doesn’t feel the Hamster is of any threat? Ironic since the Hamster is the instigator in the build up of a quick army deployment.

Anyway here is another intermediate deck I constructed, very similar to the Death Servant deck, but with a few modifications, yet again this will differ to the cost factor of your deck of which cards you have free to play with. It consists of all 4 elements with a total of 31 cards (I like playing with 1 extra card-force of habit, lol)

Phoenix Deck consists of:

3x Phoenix (When it dies it returns to owners hand)

3x Hamster Mystic (extra 1 mana)

3x Ritual of Life (no cost -gain card)

2x United Mind spells (increases castors AP by the no of owners creatures summoned)

Basically the idea of this deck was to get the AP to very high levels to sink the Energy Bolt direct to the enemy. (Similar to the deck which used the Mithril Golem but without the high cost of summoning)

Summon as many Elven Warriors & Hampster Mystics as you can, Use the United Mind spell on them & elevate your AP to high levels at the beginning of the game.

The offering of Dorlak spell must be used on your Phoenix as it will always return to your hand. I would have liked to add more of this spell to my deck (restricted with my MP) so you could use it twice. Having the Materialize spell would help but cost factor of “4” is to high. Duplicated Matrix is a good substitute for cloning spells but this card is not yet “free” for me.

If your AP is high enough, Fireballs will roast enemies to their death.

The Phoenix is the ultimate creature to get rid of those nasty “instant death spells” the opponent might have. It will always return to your hand so it’s important not to sacrifice them.

Death Servants as usual should be sacrificed whenever they are available in your hand to gain those extra mana points especially when Hampster Mystic is already summoned.

I have won a lot of duels with this deck. It’s very effective and the Phoenix is a nuisance for any opponent.

Try it out & let me know what you think.

Dreamteam67

2011-05-12 17:38:21

Remember we are talking about Player vs Player (PVP) Custom duels here, not about League duels against the AI A new thread with more advanced/expensive deck strategies might be in order if you want to explore deck compositions using more expensive cards. There are no free cards in Custom duels. We only use the AI as a test for the deck before we take it to PVP combat, meaning if it works well against the AI, it will probably do at least ok against another human. This is why I am trying so hard to utilize the less expensive cards in the decks listed here.

You have some good ideas for card combos with the Phoenix, but IMHO it would be interesting to try and find a way to get the same overall effect while bringing the total MP cost way down.

So I finally got the update for v1.91 installed. Oh boy... looks like all the premium cards are now generally available for everybody. Wonder how this is going to affect a lot of deck strategies? Everyone complained so much about the Magic Rabbit being unbalanced, now everyone has it...

Modified by Dreamteam67 on 2011-05-15 16:00:40

*CainTaeh*

2014-06-05 17:43:19

As i observed, when i constructed a custom deck and play it against an
AI (just to test if it is a good deck or not). That deck you build is
being recorded and eventually it will be used against your other
decks.... Is this true ? Interesting....

*CainTaeh*

2014-06-05 17:44:33

As i observed, when i constructed a custom deck and play it against an
AI (just to test if it is a good deck or not). That deck you build is
being recorded and eventually it will be used against your other
decks.... Is this true ? Interesting....

I mean the AI will record that deck and play it against your other deck....